“Are there any interesting social cases here? People in sleazy flats? People with unpaid dental bills? Drug cases will do, too. I work for “Expressen” the paper with a sting. My paper is planning a conservative victory in the ’68 elections. We’re doing a series on the ten most sordid social welfare cases”

‘I Am Curious (Yellow)’, directed by Vilgot Sjöman in 1967, is a Swedish avant-garde film starring the director alongside Lena Nyman. The film moves between telling the story of Sjöman trying to make a film with his love Nyman that explores the social and sexual state of the nation. Gradually, the world of the ‘documentary’ of Sjöman’s attempts to make the film, and the film they are making begin to blur and influence one another. It’s a complex, tricksy film, but on the surface the tone is light and almost farcical. You’re constantly under the impression that things are being held from you, that what you are watching isn’t the whole story, and this is partly true. The film has a sequel/prequel designed to complement it called ‘I Am Curious (Blue)’, but without this, ‘I Am Curious (Yellow)’ becomes a fascinating, if abstract, set of playful vignettes. Sjöman mixes self-referential nods towards the medium, documentary footage, including – notably – his interview with Martin Luther King, and highly intimate, comic scenes to create a whole that shouldn’t work. The film flits from subject to subject, and from tone to tone, but somehow makes a kind of twisted sense enunciating, as it does, rich themes of liberty, emancipation and feminism. The way Sjöman plays with, and stretches, the medium almost to breaking point is reminiscent of Bergman’s ‘Persona’, but Sjöman blends this approach with the madness of Věra Chytilová’s 1966 Czechoslovak comedy ‘Daisies’. As such, Sjöman’s film is entirely original and feels ahead of its time.

Would I recommend it? Yes – even without the sequel, ‘I Am Curious (Yellow)’ is absorbing and original. Watch with the more sober ‘Persona’ for a similar iconoclastic approach with different outcomes.